Wednesday, February 24, 2016

St Louis Road Trip - Day 1

The 2016 edition of the St Louis Road Trip continued on! Though Mike announced his "retirement" from teaching these USATF Level 1 classes which have, until this time, been the catalyst for all of our St Louis trips. We'll just have to go on our own from now on without Daddy juggling work responsibilities while we're there! Check these out for an archive: 2015, 2014, 2013a, 2013b, 2012,2011

I was pretty excited for noon to come so we could get headed to our weekend destination. And with the promise of 70 degrees in the forecast, come on!!!

I had the idea to get the kids headphones for the ride down for the first time. They're going to watch iPads anyways, so we might as well have a quiet ride to chat while they're watching! Troy loved his. Cass, not so much. He was watching it more than her anyways.

After we got all checked in and said goodbye to Daddy for the evening, the kids and I went down to the hotel pool. We picked a different St Louis hotel this year, as we've stayed at the same place since 2012 and wanted to switch it up. I LOVED this pool. As did the kids :) But they love all pools.

Gone are the days where swimming is a total juggling act for me, with two children hanging on me constantly. Troy is becoming a better and better swimmer and Cassidy understands "stay there!" (i.e. on the stairs, which is the main place she wanted to hang anyways) making for bit of a more relaxed time for me.

Troy's confidence in the water was high this evening...

And Cassidy was perfectly content where she was...

Some older kids showed up after awhile and were playing Marco Polo (#ChildhoodClassic). Troy swam over to them and asked if he could play with them. Three 8-9 yr old girls certainly didn't *have to* say yes to him but they did without hesitation and with a simple "hey, he's playing now!" they were back to business. Kids "these days" get a bad rep but I love getting to witness exchanges like that with absolutely zero adult interaction making them respond any particular way. Kids *can* certainly be kind to one another :)

After a long time at the pool, I cleaned up my tired kiddos and went down to the restaurant for dinner. Now this *could* certainly have been a stressful experience too, but they made it amazing. They were no problem at all. Which was pretty much the theme of the entire weekend. So thankful for them and for having such willing and happy little travelers!

One of my fav parts about traveling is snuggles with my kids before or while they're falling asleep. I got to watch Cassidy love on her babies before she fell asleep herself. She's so sweet with them.

And then this happened...

Which led to this.... I shared with Troy as he was still up :) Chocolate mousse with berries, I love thee.